How Is Curley's Wife Presented In Of Mice And Men

In the novella, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, Curley’s Wife has a multitude of characteristics. She is quite evidently portrayed as a powerful and dangerous woman, this can be seen in her movements and in the way she speaks to the men. Steinbeck also discreetly places the idea of Curley’s Wife being lonely and vulnerable into the minds of the readers.

Steinbeck shows the danger that Curley’s Wife poses to the men, at the point in which she is first discussed by Candy and George. Candy is seen gossiping to George, warning him about Curley’s Wife, explaining how ‘she got the eye’ and that she is ‘a tart’, prejudicing the reader before we are really introduced to her. This leads the reader to believe that there are no other levels to this

character and that she is a threat to the men, nothing more.
Curley’s Wife possesses a great amount of power through most of the novel.

At the point in which the reader, along with George and Lennie, first meets Curley’s Wife, she is stood in the doorway of the bunkhouse. Her presence is sensed by the lack of light in the room, ‘Both men glanced up, for the rectangle of light was cut off.’ The power of light is very strong metaphorically, as it has the ability to cast away the darkness and allow men and women to see happiness and prosperity. In George and Lennie’s case, the light shows them their dream ranch and a place where Lennie will not be mocked for his mental disfigurement, at the very instant in which she comes into their lives, the light is gone. The power she possesses is much greater than light itself, within a matter of seconds her force takes over the light and with it comes the dark. This section of the novella is the main point in which we see how powerful Curley’s Wife truly is and what she is capable of when she uses her

power.
At the point in which she first arrives, we do not realise that she is the dangerous woman Candy previously discussed, this is due to the way Steinbeck describes Curley’s Wife when she first enters the bunkhouse. Steinbeck’s use of the noun ‘girl’ portrays the vulnerability of a young child amongst strangers. This gives the reader an insight to the character’s true feelings as opposed to those suspected by the men of the ranch. Steinbeck then contrasts this image by using the adverb ‘heavily’ to describe the way her make up sits, this causes confusion in the readers’ minds as their image of a quiet, innocent, vulnerable little girl is distorted, this is because heavy makeup is commonly worn by young women with desire to attract attention as opposed to an innocent young girl afraid of the new people she is about to meet, therefore creating the feeling of confusion within the reader.
Curley’s Wife represents the vast majority of housewives in the early 1930s because, although she dreams of becoming a glamorous celebrity, she must remain a housewife.

Her ‘cotton house dress’ symbolically represents the housewife that she must be, as this was the item of clothing that all housewives wore in this era. Her ‘heavily made up face’, ‘rolled’ hair and ‘red mules, on the insteps of which were little ostrich feathers’ symbolise the life of glamour and fame she yearns for. The way Curley’s Wife attempts to emulate the women of her time that have made successes of themselves is viewed as pathetic by the reader and creates an image similar to that of a child playing dress-up, therefore losing respect of the men and readers alike. This shows the vulnerability of Curley’s Wife, as she yearns for something greater but is restrained and suppressed by 1930s society and her husband,

Curley.
When Curley’s Wife makes her first appearance in the story, she is covered in the colour red. ‘Her fingernails were red…and red mules, on the insteps of which were little bouquets of red ostrich feathers.’ In everyday life, we associate the colour red with an alert or warning of danger, this alerts the reader to trouble she will cause as the story develops. Steinbeck, instead of saying what she was wearing and finishing by saying ‘all of which were red’, repetitively said ‘red’, by doing this, he is stressing the fact that she is a dangerous character. This colour also foreshadows the dangers she will cause as the story develops.
Curley’s Wife is the only woman in the novel, this gives the character a sense of both vulnerability and loneliness. In living at the ranch, she is surrounded by powerful working men, much stronger than she is, Slim being ‘capable of driving ten, sixteen, even twenty mules with a single line to the leaders’ for example. This makes her believe she needs to seem tough and troublesome to hide her vulnerability and intimidate the men, much like a weak or injured animal hissing or snarling at nearby predators. As she is the only woman, she is also lonely because she has nobody to confide in and all of the men keep to themselves. As a result of this, she attempts to catch the men’s attention by flirting with them. Curley, her husband, gives her very little attention, this is evident to the reader as there are no points in the novella at which Curley and Curley’s Wife are seen together.
Throughout the novel, Curley’s Wife treats Crooks with hostility in the way she speaks both about him and to him. ‘Stable buck! Oh Sta-able Buck… Where the hell is that god damn nigger?’ Curley’s Wife addresses him in this way as he is the only person on the ranch of a lower social ranking than her, due to him being black, she takes advantage of this. This indicates the scale of her vulnerability, because if Curley’s Wife was to treat any of the other characters the way she treats Crooks, she would most likely be knocked down. Another example of this would be when Curley’s Wife comes into Crooks’ room uninvited, responding to him in a hostile and rude manor, ‘Listen, Nigger… You know what I can do to you if you open your trap?’ using him to hide her own vulnerability.
Steinbeck discusses a variety of Curley’s Wife’s personality traits in her final scene with Lennie. Firstly, Steinbeck uses repetition to emphasise the loneliness she faces ‘I get awful lonely’ this shows the level of desperation within her. Curley’s Wife then ‘consoled’ Lennie over the death of the puppy, Lennie’s actions leading her to believe she is much better than him. After confiding in him, she then begins to speak ‘soothingly’ to Lennie as she ‘moved closer’ to him, mistaking him as powerless and weak. Curley’s Wife’s mood then rapidly changes to ‘angry’ and begins speaking ‘darkly’ in realisation that Lennie’s is not paying attention to her. Once she finally has Lennie’s attention, her words begin to ‘tumble out in a passion of communication’ showing that she has lost all restraint in her words, this gives a clear insight into the character and her true identity. Curley’s Wife then discusses her dreams and how they were shattered, then to be ‘a little bit reassured’ by Lennie, slowly growing comfortable around him, she then moves closer to him, displaying her new found comfort. Her lack of understanding of Lennie leads her to then misread the situation is the cause of her death. Finally, when she is found by Candy, her face appears ‘sweet and young’ as though all the ‘meanness, plannings and discontent’ had disappeared, showing that she no longer has multiple personalities, that only one simple personality remains.